A Will as Strong as Yours
by Eleyn
Summary: Everything that you wanted I have done. You asked that the child be taken. I took him. You cowered before me. I was frightening. I have reordered time. I have turned the world upside-down, and I have done it all for you! I am exhausted from living up to your expectations of me. Sarah has created the goblin king from a dark power that takes its form from the depths of her own mind
1. Chapter 1

Silently he waited, the inky darkness enfolding him. It was his prison and his cocoon; helpless, he waited for those words. The words could shape him, give form to his formlessness, and grant him power with the simple phrase: I wish.

Suddenly, he was soaring. An inexorable force dragged him forward, speeding him to his destiny. He ripped through the veils of darkness and found himself in the world. He reached inside and _willed_. Where there had been nothing, now there were broad white wings, and he was flying.

It was pure joy, to feel the wind whistling through his feathers. Below, he spotted a small rodent. He hooted with glee, dropping down out of the sky, frightening the creature and grasping it in his claws. He felt the pull again, more strongly. Dropping his prey, he flew onward.

He fluttered down and alighted on a branch. Claws skittering back and forth, he watched the girl close the door behind her.

"I wish the goblins _would_ come take you away… Right now." Those were the words she had uttered, the words that dragged him into the world.

What made her think he wanted the brat any more than she did? But he had no choice; her wish had foisted the child upon him. He gazed through the window, the power of his will conjuring away the little one. Her imagination shaped his power. Goblins scurried out from under the bed, crawling out from under doors, and materializing from amongst the shadows. Quickly, they whisked the boy away, to some as-of-yet unknown place.

"Why aren't you crying?" She rushed back into the room, and he was drawn toward the window. His goblins took the form of her fears – and hopes – scurrying about the room. He was pulled into the room. His wings brushed against her forehead; the force of her mind overwhelmed him, and he was quickly transmuted to another form.


	2. Chapter 2

Meet the goblin king...

* * *

"You're him, aren't you? You're the goblin king." And he was. Her voice was filled with fear as she gazed upon him. He smirked. The goblin king. He cut quite the figure in his flowing black cape and black garb. The stormy winds whipped the curtains about in a highly theatrical manner. And yet she'd tempered her vision with a clownish coif – and such comically devilish eyebrows. Well, he could work with this.

The girl begged him for her brother back. "Please, where is he?" As if he knew. She was the one who had made him Goblin King.

"You know very well where he is." As the word "castle" rose to the top of her consciousness, he pounced, claiming it for his own. Before she could visualize it, he turned the idea this way and that, molding it to become his own, claiming his domain.

The Underworld. Stormy. Bleak. It suited the dramatic nature ascribed to him. His castle became fantastical and illogical, hovering somewhere between natural formation and architecture. The brat could stay there, for all he cared. His subjects could look after the child. There had to be some benefit to being king over the ridiculous creatures the girl had given him.

"Sarah. Don't defy me." Fear for her brother, fear of him, and a secret desire for the realization of her dreams washed over him. The crystal ball he held, the offering of her own dreams, wound about between his fingers and became the lithe body of a snake. He tossed her the serpent, yet at the last moment her unconscious defenses clamped down, transmuting her snake to lifeless cloth. The thoughts she had discarded emerged from the cloth in the form of a particularly hairy and mischievous goblin.

She was gaining too much control. In order for the power to be his, she must believe it to be. The Goblin King took advantage of the fear she evidenced. "You're no match for me, Sarah," the arrogant claim insinuating itself in her mind. The idea took root and power flooded through him. He reached for it, encircling himself and Sarah, and willed.

* * *

The chapters are short, because the ideas only come a little bit at a time. Let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

Another short one, but the idea came to me as this neat little package. I wanted to present it before it slipped away.

* * *

The labyrinth stretched out before them, vast and intricate. He warned her to turn back; this was a dangerous maze. Her wish provided the key that unlocked his power, her desires and imagination sustained it. If she should lose her life or her mind, his own power could be lost or corrupted. But she was not to be deterred.

"It doesn't look that far."

He choked back laughter. "It's farther than you think." _Or rather, closer than you think._ "You have thirteen hours in which to solve the labyrinth, or your baby brother becomes one of us. Forever."  
He prepared to leave, but found that Sarah's imagination held him a moment longer. As Goblin King, it wasn't enough for him to simply set her an impossible task. In the depths of her mind, she expected more. As if transporting her to an entirely different world he'd created wasn't enough? He waved his hand and created a clock with thirteen hours, with which he could mark her progress. In this world, time worked differently, altered by their harmonizing desires: hers to witness his power, and his to exert it.

And with that, he disappeared to his castle, to let her try to solve the twisting, turning labyrinth, if she could, for the winding paths were a most intimate course of passageways, and yet totally unfamiliar to her by sight. It was a maze not of the Goblin King's creation, and completely unsolvable by anyone other than the girl: the labyrinth was a map of Sarah's own brain.

* * *

I'm thinking of following Sarah for a while, to explore the Labyrinth-as-brain idea, since Jareth isn't up to much besides some singing and ordering his goblins around.


	4. Chapter 4

_Thanks to _flame69_ for the prompting I needed to post another bit!_

* * *

In his crystal, Jareth watched.

The frightened girl wandered the outside of the labyrinth, seeking the way in. Funny, ugly thing he was, the manifestation of Sarah's cowardice. Even his name was funny. Hogbarth, or suchlike. Perfect.

Unbeknownst to Sarah, the projection that offered such relief was a validating force: Hogwart's apparent fear of the Goblin King merely substantiated his supposed power. And it began to flood through him, beating in his veins.

Simply entering this maze won't be easy, thought Jareth. The entrance to his labyrinth was in her visual center, the perfect place for optical illusions. He laughed, and felt the strength of his resolve masking the openings, hiding them in plain sight. The strange, hairy goblins laughed too.

* * *

Frustrated, Sarah screamed and kicked the walls, finally throwing herself down in a huff. If only there were some way to get through…

"Allo!" called a small voice. She turned to see an unusual worm: blue and fuzzy, with enormous eyes. At last! Someone to help her!

"You don't by any chance know the way through this labyrinth, do you?"

* * *

Jareth looked on intently. The sheer force of Sarah's frustration had cracked the illusion, yet her confidence was just as broken. The worm did not know the way to the castle, any more than Sarah did. His claim of ignorance caused Sarah's certainty to waver, and allowed Jareth in. Through the fracture flooded Jareth's influence. The once-trustworthy worm, Sarah's guide, had become a creature of the Goblin King.

* * *

"Don't go that way! Never go that way." The worm tutted. "If she'd have kept going that way, she'd have gone straight to that castle!"


End file.
